1. Field of the Described Embodiments
The present disclosure relates generally to gaming machines, and more particularly to using a thin client within a gaming machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many of today's gaming casinos and other entertainment locations feature different single and multi-player gaming systems such as slot machines and video poker machines. The gaming machines may include a number of hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities. Exemplary hardware components may include bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens, coin hoppers, ticket printers, player tracking units and the like. Software components may include, for example, boot and initialization routines, various game play programs and subroutines, credit and payout routines, image and audio generation programs, various component modules and a random or pseudo-random number generator, among others.
Gaming machines are highly regulated to ensure fairness. In many cases, gaming machines may be operable to dispense monetary awards of a large amount of money. Accordingly, access to gaming machines is often carefully controlled. For example, in some jurisdictions, routine maintenance requires that extra personnel (e.g., gaming control personnel) be notified in advance and be in attendance during such maintenance. Additionally, gaming machines may have hardware and software architectures that differ significantly from those of general-purpose computers (PCs), even though both gaming machines and PCs employ microprocessors to control a variety of devices. For example, gaming machines may have more stringent security requirements and fault tolerance requirements. Additionally, gaming machines generally operate in harsher environments as compared with PCs.
In many casinos and other entertainment locations, the gaming machines may be networked to one or more devices that monitor the functions of the gaming machines during operation. For example, an accounting system may monitor the amount of credits received by a gaming machine and the amount of credits paid out by the gaming machine. Such an accounting system allows the operator of the gaming machines to analyze the profitability of the gaming machines, the use of the gaming machines, and similar metrics.
One or more thick-client games may be installed on a gaming machine. A thick-client game refers to a game in which all of the software necessary to play the game resides within memory of the gaming machine itself. In other words, all of the graphics of the game and logic to run the game may reside on the gaming machine itself. For example, a gaming machine may be loaded with any number of thick-client games (e.g., a slot game, a poker game, etc.). A thick-client game may also include the outcome determining logic for the game. Thus, the gaming machine itself may determine whether a user has won or lost the game. To provide an accounting, the operating system of the gaming machine may be configured to receive an indication of the outcome from the game and communicate the outcome to a remote accounting server.
The operating system of a gaming machine may be configured to use one of a variety of gaming protocols, i.e., communications protocols specifically designed for use in a gaming environment, such as a casino. One exemplary protocol is the Slot Accounting System (SAS) Protocol, pioneered by International Game Technology (IGT) and recognized in 2002 by the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) as an industry standard. A more recent communications protocol in the gaming industry is the Game to System (G2S) Protocol, also recognized by the GSA as an industry standard. Thus, many casinos and other gaming environments may have existing infrastructure to support the collection of accounting data from deployed gaming machines.